Easy Life are now called Hard Life (Picture: Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
Band Easy Life have changed their name to Hard Life after they were sued by easyJet for their original moniker.
The Nightmares hitmakers are back and have rebranded in the best way possible, releasing a new song called Tears which appears to be a retaliation to the company EasyGroup.
Last year the indie pop band – made up of Murray Matravers, Sam Hewitt, Jordan Birtles, Oliver Cassidy, and Lewis Berry – announced that they were being sued by the corporate giants because their name was too similar.
Eight months later and they’ve released a song under their new Hard Life name, which appears to poke fun at the company and its founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
While singing about being in tears, one verse in the new track in particular stands out, as the lyrics go: ‘It was easy in my twenties, now I got to lawyer up / Give me air-miles or a fair trial, Stelios.’
The rest of the lyrics explain how it’s been a ‘hard life’ but luckily the band have friends they ‘trust’.
The Nightmares hitmakers have deleted their Instagram made with their original name (Picture: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
Introducing the new song and their relaunch, Hard Life wrote on X: ‘hey it’s been a while. safe to say the last 9 months haven’t been easy. new song tears out now.’
According to the BBC, EasyGroup’s lawyers have objected to the lyric mentioning Sir Stelios, calling it ‘disparaging and defamatory’ and claiming it is a breach of the settlement it reached with the band.
They told the publication EasyGroup and Sir Stelios were ‘disappointed’ Hard Life have ‘chosen to needlessly refresh the dispute, which the band chose to settle several months ago’.
Meanwhile the band told the BBC the Hard Life name ‘feels appropriate’, with Matravers adding: ‘I’m a white middle-class man from England – it’s not to say I’ve had a particularly hard life either.
‘It was more just, in response to what had happened, Hard Life felt like the obvious thing.
‘It’s a great name – I’m really happy with it.’
Hard Life are now planning a tour and festival appearances with their new moniker and said they want to ‘move on’ and focus on music again.
Having formed in Leicester back in 2017 with their Easy Life name, the band announced in October they were being sued.
The indie pop musicians said they found their situation ‘hilarious’ but they are ‘powerless’ against such a big corporation, and implied they may have to change their name to avoid a costly legal battle with the airline giant.
The band have since removed their Instagram page under their original name, which had almost 200,000 followers.
They have shouted out to easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou in their new song, Tears (Picture: Xavier ROSSI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Taking to social media in October, the band began: ‘Okay… Never imagined having to do this but we’ve no choice but to address the situation we find ourselves in.
‘As some of you have already discovered, we are being sued. easyJet are suing us for being called Easy Life. They’re forcing us to change our name or take up a costly legal battle which we could never afford.
They continued: ‘We’ve worked hard to establish our brand and I’m certain in no way have we ever affected their business. Although we find the whole situation hilarious, we are virtually powerless against such a massive corporation.
‘I don’t really know what else to say, will keep you lot updated,’ they concluded, before quipping: ‘For those of you who bought gig tickets and ended up on a budget flight to Tenerife, I apologise. For the rest of you, thank you so much for your support.’
EasyJet told NME in a statement the legal battle was being carried out by EasyGroup, the company built to expand the ‘easy’ brand into the fields of hotels, supermarkets, financial services and more.
The statement read: ‘Stelios and easyGroup founded and (now) own the right to the easy brand name.
‘Other companies (including easyLife) pay annual royalties for its use as part of their business strategy.
‘We cannot allow unauthorised third parties to simply use it free, gratis and for nothing. That would be very unfair.’
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